Dawnless Sovereign

Fang Che feigned a concerned expression as he explained, "I killed Ximen Xuri, who was the seeded prodigy of the Divine Heavenly Church, so surely they'll come after me for vengeance. In any case, it's better to be safe than sorry."

He had chosen to keep Huo Churan's ties with the Three Saints Church secret for now, instead pinning the blame on the Divine Heavenly Church.

He would expose Huo Churan once the entire Huo Clan was exposed.

As long as the Huo Clan made an attempt on his life, he was certain in his ability to expose them!

"Alright, I'll be careful," Ye Meng said as she lowered her head with a contemplative look in her eyes.

She then left to send out a report while under the guise of having housework to do.

What if the assassins were too strong for her to deal with?

Even if she could handle them, she had to avoid exposing herself.

***

Meanwhile, Fang Che was sending a message to Yin Shengong.

"Pope Yin, Subordinate Night Demon reporting. I have already beaten up Huo Churan four days in a row and driven him to the point of tears. I'm guessing the Huo Clan will come after me for vengeance, and I want to take this opportunity to wipe out the entire clan!"

Yin Shengong was very pleased to see this, and he immediately replied: "Noted."

He then sent a message to Qian Sanjiang, instructing him to ensure Fang Che's safety.

He knew that this was a request for reinforcements from Fang Che, not just a simple report.

Qian Sanjiang was very befuddled by this instruction.

What's going on? Is Night Demon in danger? I'm one of the top elders of the One Heart Church, for crying out loud! Am I meant to serve as his personal bodgyguard?

Despite his internal gripes, he immediately sprang into action.

***

That night, Fang Che didn't permit Ye Meng to sleep in her room. Instead, he ordered her to spend the night with him in his secret compartment.

By his estimates, the One Heart Church was definitely going to be sending powerful reinforcements to protect him, something that Ye Meng was unaware of, so she ran the risk of exposing herself if left unchecked.

The secret compartment was only just large enough to fit the two of them, and Ye Meng was doing her best to take up as little space as possible.

However, Fang Che's hot and gentle breath on her ear still made her feel as if there were countless tiny ants crawling all over her body.

"Don't move, and don't make any sound. This is a matter of life and death," Fang Che warned in a quiet voice.

Ye Meng nodded in response, then closed her eyes and began to wait.

Fang Che was trying to focus on the task at hand, but with their bodies pressed up tightly against each other, he was beginning to have certain biological reactions.

He could only curl up like a shrimp while distracting himself by thinking about what he was going to do with the Huo Clan.

Fang Che was very determined to wipe out the Ximen, Huo, and Ding Clans.

Prior to exposure, all clans that were affiliated with the churches would go on mass killing sprees in their respective cities or areas before fleeing to the churches for refuge.

In doing so, they were burning all their bridges in a display of absolute loyalty to the churches.

The Ximen Clan and the Huo Clan were both situated in small cities that were short on capable personnel, so their killing sprees could prove to be extremely destructive, as was the case for the Ding Clan.

That was why he had gone out of his way to humiliate and provoke Huo Churan as much as possible, trying to goad him into setting off the sequence of events that would lead to the Huo Clan's downfall.

As long as the Huo Clan took the bait, Fang Che was confident he would be able to destroy them, and he had no sympathy for them at all.

However, the more brutally he humiliated Huo Churan, the fiercer the retaliation would be, thereby placing him in more danger, but there was no helping that.

All everyone else could see was Fang Che bullying Huo Churan relentlessly, but only he knew the amount of risk that he was taking on through his actions.

The night slowly deepened.

***

As it turned out, Fan Tiantiao was personally staying in the manor next to Fang Che's, and he was feeling very conflicted.

If he were to intervene, then the fact that he was conducting surveillance on Fang Che would be exposed, but he couldn't allow Fang Che to die.

Meanwhile, Qian Sanjiang had also already arrived in disguise.

Night Demon was the pope's new favorite toy, so his safety had to be ensured.

It was a cloudy night devoid of stars, and before long, midnight had already arrived.

Several black shadows raced through the night, quickly locking onto Fang Che's manor.

The shadowy figures sprang onto a large tree in the courtyard in a rather blatant and sloppy manner.

It was a group of Lesser Grandmasters, and they had been told that they were only dealing with a seventh or eighth-rank Warrior Master, and an academy student, at that, so none of them were taking the mission all that seriously.

The cloud cover was perfect for what they were about to do, and there wasn't even a single guard in the courtyard.

The three men exchanged a grin with one another, then sprang down from the tree in unison, rushing directly toward the main room.

Qian Sanjiang was standing completely still on the branch of another tree, watching the three men like a hawk.

He wanted to see if Fang Che could deal with them on his own, but at the same time, he had hidden weapons prepared up his sleeve, ready to be hurled at a moment's notice.

***

Two of the men stood at the entrance on lookout duty, while the third pressed a hand against the door, silently reducing the bolt to dust in an instant.

He then opened the door without making a sound before darting his way inside, following which he gently closed the door behind himself.

All of a sudden, a dull thump rang out, followed by complete silence.

The man didn't re-emerge from the room, and there was no other sound, either.

The two men outside exchanged a puzzled glance.

What's going on? Give us a sign! We have no idea what's happening out here!

Inside, the man appeared to have fallen asleep on the bed, but his complexion was an unnatural shade of green and purple.

A stick of incense was slowly burning beside the bed, releasing a colorless and odorless smoke.

This was the dreaded Soul Devouring Incense capable of knocking anyone below the Lord tier unconscious.

With no antidote to save them, the victim would sleep until they died.

A box of ten sticks of incense, along with the antidote, had cost him thirty merit points!

Not only did he have to spend so many merit points, he had also been looked upon with heavy disapproval and derision by the old man at the exchange office, a look that was all but accusing him of doing something nefarious!

However, it was a necessary price to pay.

Even though he had already reported this matter to Yin Shengong, and he was confident that Yin Shengong would've sent people to ensure his safety, it would reflect much better on him in the eyes of his superiors if he could take care of things on his own.

Hence, Fang Che had only reported the matter as a precautionary measure, but his primary plan was still to fend for himself.

He had already wasted one the previous night, and that was why he had been so frustrated.

If the Huo Clan doesn't send anyone after me tonight, I'll be wasting another one!

Fang Che made a subtle gesture to Ye Meng, and the latter extended a metal hook out of the secret compartment, using it to drag over the unconscious man on the bed, at which point Fang Che pierced a needle into his throat to put an end to his life.

The hook was then used to latch onto the blanket to wrap around the body.

"We'll have to throw those blankets away," Fang Che sighed.

Ye Meng rolled her eyes in silence.

Is this really the time to be thinking about blankets?

The onlooking Qian Sanjiang couldn't help but be mightily impressed.

He had just killed one of the three assassins with ridiculous ease!

He didn't know how Fang Che had done it, but he had definitely used something very sinister and underhanded.

It was no wonder that Yin Shengong had taken such a liking to him.

***

After waiting for some time, the other two men finally lost their patience and charged into the room.

Someone was sound asleep under the blanket, while their companion had vanished into thin air.

Where the hell did he go?

The two of them pounced onto the bed and swung their sabers down onto the body beneath the blanket.

The body was instantly sliced into three parts, and a head came rolling out from under the blanket.

Upon catching sight of the decapitated head, the two men were shocked to discover that it belonged to their companion!

What was he doing under the blanket?!

Before the two men had a chance to ponder the matter any further, they were suddenly overcome by a rush of dizziness, and they collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

The sabers and the head of their companion in their hands fell onto the ground with a loud clang and a dull thud.

Shortly thereafter, two needles flew out of the secret compartment to pierce through their throats.

Immediately thereafter, Fang Che darted out of the compartment with a saber in his grasp, and he promptly decapitated the two men without any hesitation, filling the entire room with an overwhelming stench of blood.

He had decapitated the two men with such swiftness and decisiveness that even Qian Sanjiang was caught off guard.

You're not going to interrogate them at all?

After decapitating the two men, Fang Che sat calmly in the corner of the room with the antidote in his mouth for some time.

Only once he was certain that there was no one else to come did he light the lamp on the table.

Ye Meng emerged from the secret compartment with a pale complexion as she asked, "What do we do now, Young Master?"

She wasn't afraid, but she was feeling a little uneasy, so the anxious look on her face wasn't entirely an act.

In contrast, Fang Che was as cool and composed as a block of ice.

He ignored her question as he laid out the three headless bodies onto the ground, then began to search them one by one for gold and silver vouchers and items of identification linking them to the Huo Clan. Each of them was even carrying a flame-shaped identity token, indicating that they were high-ranking members of the Huo Clan.

Fang Che calmly stowed everything away, then instructed, "Find three boxes large enough to fit their heads, and put some lime powder in them."

Ye Meng hurriedly departed while putting on a panicked display, then returned with three boxes shortly thereafter.

Fang Che carefully matched the identity tokens with their corresponding heads, then dragged out the three headless bodies into the courtyard by their ankles.

From there, he turned to Ye Meng and instructed, "Dig a deep hole."